For many people, this is the most wonderful time of the year. Christmas is second. And a distant second at that.
March Madness is the time of year when basketball fans, gambleaholics and the like get together and fill out their NCAA Tournament brackets.
These people predict the winners of 64 games (play-in game, 32 first-round games, 16 second-round games, Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four and championship game) in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament and submit them to their respective pools. Some pools are for big money and some are just for fun.
Most people try to have an original strategy when making picks, and many do. But most fall into a specific category when it comes to choosing the winners and losers in the NCAA Tournament.
The Bandwagon Predictor - Final Four: Maryland, Kansas, Duke, Cincinnati.
There is at least one bandwagon guy in every pool. Looking at this guy’s bracket is about as exciting as my spring break in East Lansing.
This guy was calling out Missouri as “his team” earlier this season when it was No. 2 in the country. Nowadays, he’s telling stories about how he has always loved Maryland, and how Drew Gooden is his “top dog.”
This guy has all the No. 1 seeds in his Final Four, not to mention all the No. 2 seeds making his Elite Eight. The only time this guy really went out on a limb was to pick that risky 9-over-8 upset. And even then he was sweating it out.
Thanks for your five bucks bandwagon guy! Sure, you’ll get two teams in the Final Four, but you’re not going to win.
The Fairy Tale Predictor - Final Four: MSU, Boston College, Indiana, Gonzaga.
This guy picked MSU to win it all the past three years. This year he has the Spartans losing no earlier than the regional final.
On top of that, he is sick and tired of Duke. Therefore, he has it losing as soon as possible.
The Fairy Tale Predictor makes his picks using 20 percent reality and 80 percent fantasy.
Being a Fairy Tale Predictor myself, I have never won a tournament pool. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have MSU in the regional final and Duke losing to Southern Cal.
The Dick Vitale Clone - Final Four: Duke, Maryland, Kansas, Arizona.
His picks look very familiar. It could be because this guy watched the ESPN selection show and thought he was getting some sort of an inside scoop.
He jotted down all of Dick Vitale’s sleeper teams and best bets, then tried to keep them a secret and pass them off as his own. Afterward, he went on ESPN.com to copy Dickie V’s bracket.
They might not be bad picks, but they’re about as original as a Puff Daddy song.
The “I joined too many pools” Guy - Final Four: Maryland, Duke, Kansas, Alabama, Oregon, Oklahoma, Illinois, Kentucky, Arizona, Stanford, Pitt, Texas Tech, Connecticut and so on.
This guy sits through the close games with a puzzled look on his face while the other people in the room scream and holler with every shot. While his friends are rooting for the teams they picked to win, the “I joined too many pools” Guy can’t remember who he picked. He joined seven different pools and has 17 teams in his respective Final Fours.
The “I told you so” Guy - Final Four: Southern Cal, Illinois, Ohio State, Mississippi State.
This is the most hated of all stereotypical tournament pool participants. This guy picks every 12 seed to win its first round game, as well as two 13 seeds and possibly a 15 seed. Sure, one of them is bound to happen. And as soon as that upset does occur, this guy is jumping for joy, yelling, “I told you so! I called it!”
OK, you called it. The same way I called a D on my economics midterm and somehow pulled off a 22 percent. Trust me on this one, you may not know who the “I told you so” Guy in your pool is now, but you will find out. And you will grow to despise him.
The Winner - Final Four: Gets every team correct.
A lot of us have been sweating out our decisions for a few days now. We have been watching college hoops since October.
We know which teams are good and bad and which teams overachieved or underachieved throughout the season.
We have spent the past three days looking at our friends’ brackets, foes’ brackets and Jay Bilas’ brackets on ESPN.com. Heck, some of us have even been bringing our brackets to class with us and haven’t learned a thing besides Illinois-Chicago’s conference record.
Most guys think they have a good shot at winning. But not me. I’m shooting for second place.
I’ve been doing these pools for a long time. I know that, inevitably, somebody’s girlfriend will wind up winning.
To brag about winning an NCAA pool, deny joining the bandwagon, say “I told you so” or swear you didn’t know Dickie V picked the same bracket as you, e-mail Sean Galvin, a State News free-lancer, at galvinse@msu.edu.
